Story Title: Majumba makubwa husitiri mambobyAuthor Name: zazie11 and wareanderCategory:Doctor WhoStory Url:Story LinkContent Rating: Teen (For innuendo)Status: CompletedLength: Short StoryStory Summary: The wind dragged a lock of hair from Rose’s chignon, whipping it around to catch in her lipstick. Smiling hard, she didn’t notice. “Don’t toy with me. Unless you are telling me you have a zeppelin ready for me on the roof, I don’t want to hear it.”Authors’ Note: Title’s a swahili proverb: “big houses conceal a lot.” Click here for a photo of a baobab tree, which we spent wayyy too much time describing as…ah…“erect” and “proud.” Sadly, very little of this appears in the final draft.

Gioia’s Rec:

This picture actually has nothing to do with this fic, except that one can pretend that the actors are actually Rose and 10.5 being stalked in Pete’s World by the paparazzi. No idea which fanartist captioned this picture so nicely as if it were appearing in a magazine.

My currently complicated life means that this is, unfortunately, going to be a far briefer rec than this story deserves.

I love Rose. I love what an ordinary person she is, and how extraordinary she becomes. Really, that could be said about most of the Doctor’s companions. But for me, Rose embodies that the most out of any of the new series companions. She’s so utterly mundane. She’s merely a shop girl who is probably a bit too fond of chips, with a loving but shrill mother, a duffer of a boyfriend (who has his own marvelous character development arc, too), and a rather boring life.

At least, that’s how Rose is in our universe. Over in Pete’s World, she’s the glamorous Vitex heiress who appeared out of nowhere with a chav accent, works for the rather exciting Torchwood, and has a drop-dead gorgeous boyfriend who also appeared out of nowhere.

I know there are many fanfics which depict Rose and 10.5 in Pete’s World. This story stands out for me because of how natural of an extension this is from canon. If RTD were to write a short story telling us what life is like in Pete’s World, post-Journey’s End, this is what it would look like.

It’s a lot of fun watching our shop girl deal with paparazzi, Torchwood’s mysterious, yet somehow bureaucratic environment, and her sexy, thrilling Doctor. This story is a sweet, exciting, occasionally disjointed (but it all makes sense in the end) encapsulation of Rose’s new life, with some crossover into her old life. It’s fantastic.